- Digital Media Products, Strategy and Innovation by Kevin Anderson
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- AI is making paywalls smarter PLUS How philanthropies in the US are banding together to create local journalism start-up funds
AI is making paywalls smarter PLUS How philanthropies in the US are banding together to create local journalism start-up funds
We need a new term rather than paywall, which is far too binary to describe the range of sophistication of paid content technologies and strategies that publishers are deploying. Canadian company Soph.io have been making the rounds and landing some major deals with publishers. It’s just one of a number of companies that are using AI to drive personalisation and dynamic subscription strategies. Using this kind of technology allows publishers to dynamically adjust paid content offerings in ways that would not be possible without this technology. The Press Gazette in the UK has a good roundup.
The other featured story today is from the US, where a local news startup outlines how philanthropies are working to create start-up funding for journalism groups to help fill in the widening gaps in local and regional coverage. The particular outlet probably isn’t as important to me as this new effort at funding. This will be important to watch. Will this funding provide the runway for these outlets to reach sustainability? Or will the outlets struggle to from a financial standpoint?
PLUS More stories of turmoil in the US public media system with a deep dive about staff turnover at WNYC, the huge New York public radio station. In podcast news, Buzzfeed partners with Acast in new podcast push. Twitter is working on a new podcast discovery tool and also considering a radical shift in how it works (with more than a bit of Web3 decentralisation pixie dust). And Spotify closes its Russia office.
Publisher paywall strategies for 2022: AI driving dynamic subscription technology — pressgazette.co.uk
Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.
On June 11, 2020, Audrey Cooper, the former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, was made editor in chief of WNYC, New York’s public radio station. Among the sparse decorations she installed in her office, on the eighth floor of WNYC’s SoHo headquarters, was a signed photograph of Colin Powell. She moved in to a […]
The Assembly, a year-old outlet focused on deeply reported state-level journalism, announces a plan to scale: a community-raised philanthropic start-up fund.
BuzzFeed Studios Plans Next Major Podcast Push, Inks Deal With Acast – The Hollywood Reporter — www.hollywoodreporter.com
BuzzFeed Studios and the podcast company Acast have struck a multiyear deal for a slate of six podcasts.
Twitter is Working on a New Podcast Tab to Facilitate Discovery and Engagement | Social Media Today — www.socialmediatoday.com
Social Media Today
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to record audiences for the BBC's Russian and Ukrainian language news service websites.
How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is Playing Out on English, Ukrainian, and Russian Wikipedia — slate.com
To understand, we have to begin with the 17-year edit war over “Kyiv” vs. “Kiev.”
How many people really watch or read RT, anyway? It’s hard to tell, but some of their social numbers are eye-popping | Nieman Journalism Lab — www.niemanlab.org
But the numbers that suggest a huge international reach are also some of the easiest to manipulate.
Spotify has taken several steps in response to Russia's military attack on Ukraine, including closing its offices in Russia "indefinitely."
Twitter Wants to Reinvent Itself, by Merging the Old With the New - The New York Times — www.nytimes.com
The company is undertaking a far-reaching effort to change how it works. For some, it is an echo of their early idealism and a vision for what the internet could have been.